03.26.19

For Creating Opportunity Through Innovation

BY Fast Company SA < 1 MINUTE READ

What makes Sybrin the ultimate forward thinker?

Sybrin’s mandate is to provide businesses with technology solutions to stimulate growth, reliability and prosperity. We are constantly thinking and progressing ahead of the curve. If we had to focus on what makes us specifically innovative, we would have to say that it comes down to what we believe in.

Currently, there are limited development and technical skills to service a huge demand in the world. What makes us unique is our ability to provide innovative tools that eradicate complexity — allowing our customers and partners to innovate freely and as rapidly as we do. Innovation must be future-proof. It should foresee any forthcoming requirements before the need arises to better address them.

Without these principles, innovation and growth will not be possible. We aim to serve an under-supplied market in a new way as one of the only African businesses to successfully do so on the continent; home-grown, locally designed and developed, and invested in by Sybrin itself.

Read more in the March/April issue of Fast Company South Africa.

03.25.19

For innovating mobile banking apps

BY Fast Company SA < 1 MINUTE READ

What makes Absa an innovative leader in Industry 4.0?

Within a year, Absa was able to set up ChatBanking for significant value and retail returns through a bank-integrated multiplatform system. For example, by activating an icon, users can ask a bot to action a request. We are now leaning into bot intelligence to build shortcuts in order to better enable customers to pay rent and pocket money, or simply buy prepaid airtime. We have also partnered with startups through our Cape Town-based innovation hub, providing support and resources, as well as develop the best technology solutions for our customers.

How does Absa use creative strategy to better service consumers?

We aim to solve customers’ fundamental problems first because it will solve the root cause of many other problems. Our focus is always on the customer and by using human-centred design (HCD) thinking, we develop solutions to problems by involving the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process. Whatever the design, we incorporate real human beings who will interact, test the product and channel the design solution. This ensures that we reach our goal with more agility. The feedback we obtain from the testing sessions assists in continuous improvements. We think of everything as a system and always think of the big picture: To constantly innovate and ensure Absa customers have a good user experience at all touch points.

Read more in the March/April issue of Fast Company South Africa.

03.21.19

For Shaking Up the Insurance Game

BY Fast Company SA < 1 MINUTE READ

“In our busy world, Yalu has created the only self-service credit life insurance policy in the market. Underwritten by a business division of Old Mutual, namely Alternative Risk Transfer (or OMART), Yalu makes it as effortless as possible to complete the credit life insurance policy online in under five minutes (with ambassadors on standby to provide immediate assistance). Replacing a customer’s current policy with a more affordable, simpler and rewarding policy, the umbrella policy from Yalu covers credit cards, as well as personal, revolving and student loans. This saves on unnecessary admin fees and debit order costs for multiple policies to better facilitate multiple providers at claims stage.

‘Credit life insurance provides the security that, should a policyholder be unable to repay their debt due to death, disability or retrenchment, the policy pays out either as a lumpsum (death and permanent disability) or up to 12-monthly installments (temporary disability and retrenchment). It’s an invaluable cover that protects both insured, and their loved ones, from the enormous strain of having to settle a debt when life circumstances may place them in a position where they simply are unable to. Credit life insurance is much like having an umbrella on a sunny day. You probably won’t need it, but in a sudden turn of events in a heavy thunderstorm, you’ll be very grateful you have it,’ explains Nkazi Sokhulu, Co-founder and
CEO of Yalu.”

Read more in the March/April issue of Fast Company South Africa.

03.20.19

Challenging University Students to Embrace IoT

BY Fast Company SA 2 MINUTE READ

SqwidNet has launched the second round of its IoT SA University Challenge. The nationwide technology competition is aimed at getting university students to solve real-world challenges using the Internet of Things (IoT).

“We developed this initiative in partnership with Sigfox as we believe that young people have a very different view of the world. They approach challenges differently and because they have grown up with technology at their fingertips, they find alternative ways of applying it to do so,” says Chetan Goshalia, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at SqwidNet.

SqwidNet will offer the winning team a cash prize (for participants as well as for the tertiary institution), and the chance for the team leader to pitch their solution in front of industry and technology experts at the Sigfox headquarters in France. “We saw incredibly creative solutions emerge during the first round of the challenge,” says Goshalia. “These included solutions for animal tracking, reducing the number of cash-in-transit heists, and the monitoring of climatic conditions such as temperature, humidity, pressure and gasses.”

The winning team from Stellenbosch University developed a smart collar which is placed on an animal in order to monitor the condition it is in and be alerted in real-time when it is at risk, including its whereabouts. The project included GPS location data that was used to create virtual perimeters (geofences). When an animal moves out of this geofence, an alert is triggered and sent via SMS or some phone message to the farmer who is responsible for it. The project also monitored some of the animal’s key vital signs like heart rate and animal behaviour. Existing technology-based solutions to prevent poaching can be very expensive due to the need to dart the animal in order to change the battery, but this IoT solution is a vast improvement because it relies on very little battery power, as it takes advantage of SqwidNET’s low power network that is dedicated to IoT.

“Students are encouraged to form teams with other students from other faculties as it supports the “multiple perspectives” principles of design thinking. Once they have a team in place and have come up with an idea for a specific solution, they can enter the challenge by visiting https://www.sqwidnet.com/iotsachallenge from the 25th of March 2019, entering their team members’ details and an outline of the project they are embarking on,” he says. Entries close on the 24th of May 2019.

“The first round of judging will then take place and the finalists selected will receive a development kit from SqwidNet together with ongoing support while developing their solution. The finalists will then have the opportunity to present their solutions to a panel of judges after which a winner will be selected.”

Goshalia concludes with these tips for students wanting to participate: “Identify a problem that is close to your heart and serves to solve real problems society is battling with. The UN’s 22 Sustainability Development Goals best encapsulating our most pressing problems. Once you know what the problem is, then you can start looking at how technology can be applied to solve that problem, using the Internet of Things (IoT). If you proceed to the second round, ensure that you tap into the resources and assistance we make available to you. Finally, don’t limit your thinking. At SqwidNet, we drive innovation through IoT by eliminating creative boundaries.”

08.07.18

Bringing Artificial Intelligence to Africa

BY Fast Company SA 3 MINUTE READ
Fast Company SA chats to Chairman Roy Bannister and Event Director Nick Bradshaw about this year’s most anticipated AI event, the AI Expo Africa.
What is your vision for the AI Expo Africa 2018? 
 
To build the largest business-focused Artificial Intelligence (AI) community in Africa, committed to economic growth and social good; and to create a long-term sustainable pan-African forum that will be at the forefront of sharing knowledge across the continent for the greater good of Africa. The AI Expo Africa 2018 will see the largest pan-African AI community gather under one roof with a shared vision of harnessing Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Data Science, Robotic Process Automation and Internet of Things (IoT) for the benefit of African enterprise and startups alike. 
Why is there a need for a conference of this nature on the African continent? 
 
Artificial Intelligence and the Fourth Industrial Revolution are hot buzzwords in the media at the moment, especially given the potential for disruption of all business and government sectors in the future. Businesses are not fully prepared for the disruption this technology will bring, nor do they understand the regional supply base. Businesses need to understand how to implement AI, and harness it for increased efficiency and profitability. 
The academic and technical communities are well-served with a multitude of events, but there were none that catered to the business community using the format we have created. An event is needed that will bridge the gap between the academic and technical pursuit of AI and its real-world applications.
What makes this event different to similar events on Artificial Intelligence? 
 
Firstly, we believe the traditional event model is broken and often out of the reach of many companies and delegates purely in terms of the price charged and formats that are run. Secondly, we are building a community; a movement of people focused on the real-world business application of these technologies that aims to be inclusive and represents all aspects of the user community. Our event is merely the manifestation of our rapidly growing AI business community seeking a long-term view to a sustainable AI industry. It’s underpinned by inclusivity, where the biggest enterprise and smallest startup can mix with venture capitalists, enterprise buyers, government, educators, AI talent and ecosystem enablers. We are offering affordability on the entry price for all, allied to 400 free training places for young AI engineers and data scientists, interns and learners. All of these unique characteristics make AI Expo Africa unlike any other event that follows the traditional trade show formula. 
Will you be looking at Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning etc. in an African context? How will you ensure this? 
 
 
Most definitely, as one of our stated visions is harnessing AI for the greater good of Africa. We’re reaching out to leaders across the continent – from Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and other countries that have excellent innovative AI ecosystems – and looking to include them in our pan-African community. Knowledge-sharing, skills-development and the fostering of a shared vision to harness AI in fields such as healthcare, poverty alleviation, finance, service delivery, agri-business and other sectors, will result in benefits for all. We are also partnering with various ecosystem partners such as Silicon Cape and the Machine Intelligence Institute of Africa to ensure the right people are involved and our message reaches far and wide.
 
What can attendees expect over the two days? 
 
We have a packed two-day conference with over 30 keynote speakers. Leaders in the AI field will unpack real-world case-studies for delegates with the aim of promoting the AI offerings available today for businesses and organisations. There will be practical AI, IoT and VR demonstrations, as well as 50 vendors in the Expo Hall, with exhibitors like Hikvision, Di Data, BCX, and SAP. Delegates can also look forward to the Innovation Café, housing 20 AI startups, as well as free AI workshops, catering to 400 students and engineers.
12.04.17

What every entrepreneur needs to know about going digital

BY Fast Company SA 2 MINUTE READ

This stood out at the third edition of the MTN Business Digital Entrepreneur Masterclass, which was recently held in Durban. This event showed entrepreneurs how they can grow their businesses by using smart, tailored solutions produced by MTN Business and its partners.

Attendees walked away with the following tips – all great starting points for entrepreneurs looking to go digital.

AN ONLINE PRESENCE OFFERS INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITIES

Remember the idea of six degrees of separation? Simply put, every person in the world is separated by only six people. Today, it’s become 3.2 degrees of separation, because of social media. Having an online presence, specifically on social media, means businesses can reach a much wider network of potential clients than in an offline environment.

There are 3.5 million internet searches and 701 000 Facebook logins every 60 seconds. With those numbers in mind, any entrepreneur without an online presence is doing themselves a disservice.

Having a digital home, such as a website, for your business is critical.

This is the digital identity for your business, and the beginning of putting yourself out there to be found.

FORGET B2B AND B2C – EMBRACE H2H

While technology has allowed us to automate almost anything, the removal of the human element is not necessarily what we want. People are beginning to crave human connection.

Brands are expected to move away from Business-to-Business or even Business-to- Consumer marketing. 2017 and beyond is about Human-to-Human marketing. It is human nature to crave a sense of belonging, and the forming of communities, such as fan clubs, business networks and even churches meet this need.

Today, communities are created online and across the world. It began with chatrooms and swiftly moved to the era of social media. Companies should actively engage in conversations with their consumers on social media, so that consumers feel their needs have been met and that they’ve had a real conversation with a person, not a brand.

COLLABORATE FOR CREDIBILITY

The idea of collaboration is a hot topic, and an important business tactic. When potential clients are hesitant to work with small businesses, being associated with established brands increases the credibility of the business.

Entrepreneurship can be a lonely journey, and collaboration also translates into support for entrepreneurs who aren’t connected to people who understand their business. If you join an incubator, your business would be exposed to those with more experience and those who have faced similar challenges.

A digital world erases the problem of geography when it comes to collaboration. Teleconferencing plays an important role in bringing people together despite their location, and it doesn’t need to become a major expense.

Due to the growing success and popularity of the MTN Business Digital Entrepreneur Masterclasses, a fourth edition was held in Johannesburg on 31 October. Hosted in partnership with Google, Huawei, Samsung, HP, SiMoDiSa, Blue Robot, National Gazelles, and CAT, MTN Business explored the theme, “The Digital Industrial Revolution”.

The topics presented at this conference were conceptualised to assist entrepreneurs who have been in business for a few years and are looking for solutions to enable them to take their businesses to the next level.

“We’re pleased by the overwhelmingly positive response the Digital Entrepreneur Masterclasses have received since their inception,” says Mandisa Ntloko, General Manager of Enterprise Marketing: MTN Business SA. “This initiative fits perfectly with our vision and mission of being a business-enabler. We believe that the sessions at these conferences help ‘future proof ’ the enterprises of the attending entrepreneurs, and empower them with the skills needed to sustain and grow their businesses in the 21st century.”

11.21.17

The job of an entrepreneur – Taming chaos

BY Fast Company SA 4 MINUTE READ

For the last five years, I have been a full-time entrepreneur, building a company which today, has over 400 people on the payroll. Prior to that, I had been an academic for 10 years, and prior to that, an engineer for 5 years. Other than getting on with ageing over this period, I have found that at some point, without warning, things have moved from being somewhat overwhelming to becoming somewhat easier. I would like to say easy, but that would just be looking for trouble and I frankly don’t need more of that now.

Mastery

Malcolm Gladwell popularised the concept that “mastery” of any field requires 10,000 hours of practice. That is quite a number of hours, and usually equates to about 10 years if you dedicate a few hours a day of practice. Doing the same thing for 10,000 hours can be both boring and fruitless. You can dedicate more hours to shorten the time to mastery, but it may affect your ability to earn a living and get a date on any given night. So obviously, just repeating the same thing, like a mouse on a spinning wheel, is not enough. Enters the concept of Directed Practice.

“As in the story of Hansel and Gretchel, when you find the first reliable path through a forest of chaos, it reduces uncertainty.”

Directed Practice

Directed practice implies that practice is not just the mindless, repetitive doing of something while your mind wanders to better pastures, which is more or less what I did practicing the piano, and subsequently didn’t have much to show for it.

Directed practice is actively engaging in whatever it is you are trying to master, identifying the bits you’re not good at, finding ways to get better at those bits, and practicing those bits until you’re good at it. It is also constantly engaging with what you are unfamiliar with and getting used to dealing with it, then put it all together as one masterful whole. And then repeat, until you’ve filled your share of 10,000 hours. And almost in the blink of 10,000 you have mastery.

Entrepreneurship

But what does this have to do with my life as entrepreneur becoming less difficult? A lot, actually.
I did the calculations and found the following: During my five years as an entrepreneur, I worked at least 8 hours per day (mostly more, but let us just take out lunch and driving). Over a 5-year period, this equates to 10 000 hours.

But that was not all. As entrepreneur and CEO, I was confronted by so many new situations and fields related to the business (such as Legal issues, HR, finance, politics, engineering, mentoring, leadership, sales). Each time I had to figure out what it was, how it works, and practice it by reading books, talking to experts, experimenting, failing, falling and standing up. This was very difficult, very time-consuming and mostly painful.

But then at some point, things started to fall in place. I had achieved some form of mastery. Many day-to-day business issues and problems still lingered, but I had learned how to handle them better and how to tackle the unknowns with a lot more confidence and grace than in the past.

Playing Out In Real Life

Although I developed more expertise about our specific business, the market we play in, how the model fits together, the intricacies of how to sell and how actions link to profitability, it is also true that the market started to notice the business over a period of time. I think the market just started to get used to us being there, and started believing in our staying power, our longevity as a business. I’d like to believe we had built trust with our clients, enough for them to understand how and where to engage with us, and what to expect of us.

We Had Started To Build A Track Record, Establish A Reputation.

As a business, return customers, account growth, and pipeline management became the norm. We created names for our systems and processes, developed and tested these a bit more. We started to look past cash flow to break-even and profitability. Some of our employees actually received five-year long-term employment certificates! We defined our market into smaller niches which means we no longer shuffle everything around. Our board meetings would make Prof Mervyn King proud.

A Most Valuable Resource

All of this made me realise why experienced (or Master) entrepreneurs are so valuable in our country. They are literally worth more than gold and oil. It takes time and a special breed of people to go through the difficult process of mastering such a wide and encompassing field such as entrepreneurship.

It is so much easier and stable to do a specialised job well, get promotion and receive bonuses as part of employment. You can study for it, gain invaluable experience through work and focus on one aspect of business (such as sales or finance).

Entrepreneurship Mastery

Entrepreneurship mastery is not achieved by attending a “master class”, doing a degree or reading books. It is also not achieved by doing the same kind of job repeatedly. These are but a few small components which undoubtedly help. But we have evaluated so many incubation programmes that just provide space, and/or short theory- based courses, and we have found that few good entrepreneurs exit.

Entrepreneurship is a profession, a lot of hard-earned know-how coupled with experience on all aspects of running a business.

Master entrepreneurship requires entrepreneurs who have gone through the whole process of starting a business and growing it to scale. This often requires establishing more than one business to achieve full process mastery. And this takes time, special people, special circumstances and often includes some financial losses. Master entrepreneurs have played all the levels of the game.

Making Magic

At Resolution Circle, we have seen this over and over again. As our own business matures, we have recognised similar issues in other businesses. We see many innovative ideas and great inventors. As a technology commercialisation company, we also see the severe lack of experienced entrepreneurs driving businesses.

But every so often, we see a magician walking in, and almost instinctively, we just know that magic will be created. And that is our big reward, to help create the magic. And in the process, to see yet another Master Entrepreneur being birthed. Products come and go, businesses will be formed and they will die. But Master Entrepreneurs are valuable.

And that, I believe, is our most important contribution.

11.15.17

Keeping It Clean and Simple

BY Fast Company SA 10 MINUTE READ

Solar systems are one of the greatest inventions on the planet, converting sunlight into electricity without harming the environment.

Jaco Venter is a CEO making moves to eradicate the use of and dependency on fossil fuels through Zeroth Energy, a consulting company that supplies solar systems for sectional complexes, retirement villages, commercial businesses, industrials, schools and fuel stations. Jaco chatted to Fast Company and shared some insight into what the company is all about.

Can you give us a brief background of your childhood and adult education?

I was born in Vereeniging on 18 July 1985, grew up incredibly poor and often moving from school to school, house to house, neighbourhood to neighbourhood. Even though it was painful growing up in that manner, I appreciate the value it had on my life, as I started asking the question WHY, especially in patterns I noticed. This helped me to become a top 10 student in school even though I was a massive rebel and always got into trouble.

This foundation gave me the opportunity to go to North-West University, where I studied Mechanical Engineering, which I later changed to Actuarial Science. I left university with a few credits short, the best decision I made in my life even though I was classified as a failure.

This allowed me to pursue my true passion, which was to know myself and the universe, so I went travelling. I travelled the world for 7 years, where I visited over 90 countries on all 7 continents. Looking back I basically got a 7-year degree in human psychology, philosophy and learning to think big. For me, knowledge is not the key, but experiences are the key, and experiences lead to the ability to do things smarter, with a bigger picture in mind.

Can you give us a brief background of your career?

My career has always been sales orientated. I worked for numerous companies while living in London, one of them being a $ billion fitness/detox company, as well as the biggest art company in the world in America, where I was an Art Auctioneer. Even though I was never actively pursuing a career in art or fitness, I did get interested in sales as it was aligned with human nature and my philosophical way of thinking was intrigued.

The time I spent in sales jobs around the world was great, as I had different teachers and different perspectives, making my viewpoint on sales very unique. For a brief stint I lived in Thailand, where I taught philosophy and yoga for free on the beach, and this is where I got more aligned with the energy of the universe, as well as learned how I was in control of my own reality and the creator of my own life. I came back home in 2015 for two of my sisters’ weddings and decided to stay in South Africa.

Can you give us more info on Zeroth Energy and what it is about?

Zeroth Energy is a unique African energy brokerage firm, specialising in making renewable energy accessible to the masses. We work with numerous solar and wind suppliers, installers and financial institutions to simplify the process, from client introduction to system implementation. We have successfully managed to shorten the process, as well as make it much more cost effective for solar/ energy suppliers to operate in the market, bringing the total cost down for the clients. Along with our partners, we have also introduced solar rental models to the market.

Making renewable energy accessible to the masses by completely removing the upfront costs is our mission at Zeroth, and we also aim to change the way we use energy effectively and productively manage our energy sources in all forms. Our principal objective is to make renewable energy accessible to the masses and effectively through a comprehensive paradigm shift, alter methodologies of producing food, personal and produce transportation and power to our industries and residences.

What was the need to facilitate change in the energy market? Did you see a gap for an opportunity?

When I came back to South Africa I wanted a challenge, as I am a big thinker, and after travelling the whole world I felt I wasn’t challenged in my own life anymore. Been there, got the T-shirt… So I started asking what South Africa needs.

The rating agencies said two things will make life better in SA. One is the political situation and the other is the energy problem. Since I won’t be a great politician with my rebellious nature, I started questioning the energy space. I got my first chance with an IPP company, helping them start a division to bring PPA (Power Purchase Agreements) to the private market.

From my sales background and learning to turn “no’s” into “yes’s”, I started realising that my ability was very limited, being associated with only one company, even though I was bringing a product to the market that was a no-brainer, with no upfront cost, to get solar, with savings from day one. As time went by, and coming from a ttravelling background where I saw plenty of solar systems installed, even in countries with little to no sunshine, I questioned why Africa was not fully renewable in energy, why clients were not taking it, why there was no competition and why nobody was representing the clients.

I also saw and realised that most solar and energy companies are run and developed by engineers who are the ones needed for the innovation, but they didn’t have the ability to sell their innovation to the public. This is where I saw the gap; that you need a company that represents both the suppliers and the clients, helping the clients to get the best deal and helping the suppliers to sell and to always improve, which will lead to a better product offering to clients and better pricing.

We want a never-ending cycle where everybody wins. If it is not a win-win situation then Zeroth doesn’t get involved. So I started Zeroth Energy. It was a poor start as I lost all my clients I had built up with the other company, eventually going from two suppliers to none as I left them due to unethical business practices. I refused to do business with people who didn’t treat my clients like I did, even though it almost cost me my entire business.

My ability to stick with something, even though it is costing me in my personal and family life, as everything in my life is about Zeroth Energy, helped me keep persisting and eventually build up an amazing business, with talented people all over South Africa. Even though I had the ability to not give up, it was the people who worked for me, past and present, who helped me build this company. Since the beginning, I knew this was bigger than me, and I could not have gotten Zeroth to this point without the people involved. And divine energy places the right lessons and the right people in my path to steer Zeroth to great heights.

What are the pros and cons of being in the industry of manufacturing renewable energy in South Africa?

The con is that to have a financial model work in renewable energy we can only use Tier 1 products. Tier 1 means they are Vertically Integrated, with over 5 years’ experience. In South Africa we only have Tier 2 & 3 locally produced solar products. So it makes it incredibly hard to buy and support local products. This is something I would love to change, however, this will take a tremendous amount of money and a few years to achieve.

The pro is that we have one of the best climates in the world to have renewable energy implemented. The only push we need is some education to the masses that renewable energy is now accessible, and that it works. Funnily enough, Solar was invented before AC electricity. JP Morgan saw the opportunity to make loads of money with Thomas Edison and so pushed the funding for the electrification of New York, and the world followed the working mode. However, it is changing rapidly.

Zeroth has consultants across South Africa. What is the response towards your services from customers and entities who you supply to?
Zeroth has an amazing team of partner consultants, together with a team of referral agents. Our innovation does not come from technology enhancements, but from the way we have broken down all the barriers for somebody that wants to get into the renewable energy space at little to no cost.

We provide our consultants with everything, from solar to wind, smart meters to designing, installation to maintenance, contracts to marketing as well as one hell of a brand, Zeroth. All they have to do is talk to the people of this world and tell them that they can switch over to renewable energy at no cost.

What more can somebody ask for when wanting to start a successful business in this incredible space? All our consultants are their own business owners under the Zeroth brand, and our model is to make sure we empower people to grow their own business and to run a flexible schedule. We don’t believe in office hours or checking up on each other. They are all business owners and as long as they act like business owners and keep up with our high standard they will always be part of us.

We work on a pride system – personal responsibility in developing excellence, make your targets, help the clients and you can take the rest of the month off if you want to. They all are fantastic at what they do and have an incredible product knowledge.

However, their best ability is to relate to the clients on a personal level and become friends with their clients. We are in this for the clients, and our number one thing is to make sure every client sees our consultants and company as a friend. Customers have come in their droves, and lately we have experienced a growth rate of almost 4 000%. As people learn more about our effortless approach, they are more drawn to doing business with us.

Do you have a global presence or are you currently based in South Africa?

At the moment we are exploring our entry into the entire African market, and eventually into the entire world. By introducing our app in the near future it will help us to control the demand, as we are struggling to keep up with a limited amount of installers and suppliers, so our aim is first to make sure we can handle the demand in effective ways without disappointing our clients in the process. Our goal is to be all over Africa by the end of 2018 and all over the world by the end of 2019. With our current growth rate, we might get there quicker.

Who would you consider as your competitors and how are you staying ahead of the competition?

I personally believe our biggest competitor is who we as a company were yesterday, and that keeps us thinking in a creative mindset, making sure we improve every single day. We are never satisfied with where we are. Currently, our business model is working perfectly, and without any modifications and we will be in business for a long time. However, we want to make it even better and quicker and more accessible to every client.

Currently, the people trying to do what we do in the market are miles behind us, as we have a global view of doing things and they have a local view. We will never chase, as we set the example, and with our high standards we make sure the bar is raised high and keep raising it higher on a daily basis, not to shut down competition, but because we believe we are doing this for the right reasons – to help our clients. And we want our clients to always get the best. And the best is Zeroth Energy.

What are your thoughts on collaboration partners?

As I said earlier, this is much bigger than who I am, or my team, so I am always up for more partners and collaboration. We are doing this for the planet and for the people of this planet, and the quicker we can stop our dependency on fossil fuel and start relying on renewable energy, the better we will be as a species and leave a healthier and better planet to our next generations. In the end, we are all going to die and be buried in the same grave, so it’s not about us, it’s about the change we make. Zeroth is here to make change for the masses, so the more people we can get involved the more wonderful change we can make.

What are the business’s most notable accomplishments since it’s inception?

Our first client that signed up. As everybody doubted us and the way we were doing things, even suppliers were reluctant to sign up with us, and since our first client, a 5 star hotel, for which almost all our current suppliers (who at that point were not our suppliers) bid as well, signed up, suppliers have been flocking to us, wanting us to do their sales and help them improve in the market space.

It took us over a year to get our first client, as the market was not ready. We worked on helping suppliers create products for us to sell. However, we learned more in that year than we would have getting sales straight away, so I am grateful for that moment. It took Colonel Sanders 1 008 “no’s” before he got his first “yes”, and look where KFC is today. It is not the “no’s” that create a business, it’s the ability to take a “no” on the chin and improve every day. Persistence makes a company great and will make us stand the test of time.

What has been your greatest challenge to date?

One of my first partners, Terry Tompson, died just before we had a meeting with a client. It shook me incredibly hard and really made me reevaluate what we did and who we did it for. We are in this for the people of the planet, for the people who work with us and their families, and for the creatures and plants of this world in any form. I stood up at Terry’s funeral, even though I didn’t know him long, and I thanked him as he was one of the most important people in our company’s short history. Thank you so much, Terry.

As the CEO of Zeroth Energy, what are your thoughts on SA’s manufacturing and renewable energy industry?

This industry is a human, at the moment it is a baby. The baby has just been born and has its whole life ahead of itself. We are at an amazing stage, with renewable energy only playing a 1% role in the entire market at this moment. Now is the most crucial time in the growth of this market, as what we do now will either propel the baby into an amazing childhood of superior development or slow him down.

I believe that South Africa’s renewable energy market will grow tremendously once people get familiar with our brand and realise that we are there for them, there to help them get the best solution for their business or home, there to tell them if it’s a good or bad choice, there for them to save money, there for them to improve their brand and business image to the public, there for them to spend their money on their own business, instead of giving it away to Eskom and getting nothing in return down the line.

As soon as they see us as their friends and that we will do anything to help them, then we can speed up the process and get everybody on renewable energy. We are doing it for you. All you have to do is call us. From then on sit back and relax as we do everything for you.

All you have to do then is make a choice, which will be guided by our expertise and recommendation. If we won’t sell or provide the solution offering to our mother, then we won’t recommend it to you.

What does the future hold for the company?

Amazing things; we are growing super-fast and we actually have an inside goal we are aiming at, and that goal is to buy Eskom in 3 years’ time, as we believe our business model will be the downfall of them, and we would like to buy them for their distribution network, shut down all fossil fuel power stations and build huge solar farms. There shines enough sun energy in 1 hour to power the entire planet for a year. It is doable and Zeroth is not just showing the way, we are making it easy for anybody who wants to be involved.

11.09.17

SqwidNet wins the IoT Product/Service of the Year Award at the 10th AfricaCom Awards

BY Fast Company SA 2 MINUTE READ

At the 10th AfricaCom Awards this week, SqwidNet won the award for IoT Product/Service of the Year. SqwidNet, the licensed SIGFOX IoT network operator in South Africa, received this award for the best platform or deployment of an IoT solution, focusing on the business requirements, integration and benefits gained.

“Winning the IoT Product/Service of the Year award at the 10th AfricaCom Awards is a great achievement and a humbling experience for our team, especially as we are just under a year old and were competing against some of the biggest and more established industry players on the continent including MTN, Qualcomm, Orange, Huawei, Ericsson and eWaterpay,” says Reshaad Sha, CEO SqwidNet.

Since its roll out which began in February 2017, SqwidNet has reached 75% of the population in South Africa. The network is on track to achieving 85% coverage across the country by the end of 2017, and is also exploring expansion options into other African countries.

“Our holistic approach to market comprising of network roll-out, ecosystem enablement, market education and entrepreneurship and innovation support has been pivotal to us receiving this accolade from the industry.”

“We will continue to contribute towards the accelerated development, deployment, and adoption of the IoT in South Africa in a manner that will ensure that the country and the continent at large will reap the benefits of inclusion, participation and improved quality of life enabled by the IoT,” concludes Sha.

About Us 
SqwidNet, a wholly owned subsidiary of DFA, provides a nationwide open access IoT network based on the SIGFOX technology. SqwidNet provides listening posts for messages from various objects to store, manage, track and operate communication signals for different purposes to connect the physical world and the digital world. It provides an efficient, scalable network that is purpose built to connect hundreds of millions of sensors and devices broadcasting data across South Africa.
11.08.17

How digitisation impacts your SME

BY Fast Company SA 2 MINUTE READ

The answer seems obvious. The rise of the Internet certainly makes it easier for entrepreneurs to reach a larger audience and increase brand awareness. That is assuming you have access to the Internet to harness the opportunities it presents.

Those who have brought their businesses online and are doing it correctly, are thriving. Entrepreneurs are crowdfunding to raise capital, communicating with customers on social media and placing targeted banners on popular websites to generate leads, and it’s working.

Popular designer Maria McCloy remarks that her business would be dead without social media.

“I think brands and young entrepreneurs who have no digital profile are crazy; it’s free communication to your current and new market.”

A strong social media presence took McCloy from arty markets to the shelves of a retail giant. “When Woolworths contacted me regarding being part of their Style By SA collection, they did so via my Facebook inbox. It was a big deal for me.” Shop space in a mall is too expensive for her small business to manage, so McCloy has plans to create an online store in order to reach international clients.

The digital divide still exists in South Africa, but this isn’t expected to last much longer. The government is partnering with The World Economic Forum on an Internet For All Project, with a focus on increasing internet use in rural areas. In the meantime, South African entrepreneurs without access to the Internet have limited possibilities for growth. Your product could be in high demand beyond South African borders, but if you aren’t online, you’ll never know.

Digital brands including MTN Business are aware of the importance of partnering with SMEs. Hosting competitions like the Mind2Machine and App of the Year Awards fast-tracks brilliant entrepreneurs on their route to success. Partnerships are beneficial for both established brands and small businesses; entrepreneurs are provided with resources they might not otherwise have had access to, while big brands are exposed to new disruptive ideas for further growth.

The digital world is far from perfect though, and there are many ways to get it wrong. The online space is one where a customer complaint can be seen by everyone. It’s one thing to have an online presence, but actually managing constant customer communication is an overwhelming task. Internet users generally do not take the side of companies, and ‘the customer is always right’ becomes a tedious phrase when trolls take advantage of freedom of expression. A quick look at TripAdvisor or Hello Peter reveals how harsh users can be and business owners are expected to be careful when defending themselves online.

Customer complaints alone might suggest that having an online presence is not worth the stress, but not being online does not mean your business isn’t being talked about. If anything, being online allows you to manage potential negativity.

Your business may not be big enough to hire a team of media experts, but building a support network and sharing knowledge is a good start.